Can Software Patch the Ailing Power Grid?

Can Software Patch the Ailing Power Grid?

Grid challenge: Engineers at the Pacific Northwest National Lab in Richland, Washington, evaluate how well the pieces of a massive smart grid project are coming together in a test this spring.

Software that enabled a utility in Washington to cut power consumption by up to 50 percent by more intelligently managing the delivery of electricity to homes and businesses will soon get a much bigger test.

This small demonstration is part of a project that will ultimately attempt to knit together aging, fragmented grid infrastructure across five states and 11 utilities to make way for electric cars and renewable energy. The project will involve 95 smaller efforts to integrate wind power, store power from the grid, accommodate electric vehicle charging, and establish “microgrids” that can survive on their own in the event of a power outage.

The software for the $178-million project is nearly complete, and the system will be up and running by this time next year, says Ron Ambrosio, the global research leader for the energy and utilities industry at IBM, one of several companies and institutions involved. The project is one of 16 smart grid demonstrations funded in part by the 2009 Recovery Act.

Some of the technology was first demonstrated from 2005 to 2007 on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. The technology allowed utilities to communicate with smart thermostats and other equipment at residences, reducing peak electricity demand and responding to fluctuations in supply from intermittent resources such as wind turbines.

Ordinarily, such a system would depend on changes in regulations to allow utilities to charge residential customers different prices for electricity depending on demand. But the new technology, developed by IBM, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and others, makes such real-time pricing unnecessary.

The approach keeps electricity rates flat, but gives customers rebates on their power bills in exchange for having thermostats and other smart devices hooked up to communicate with the utility. The utility sends signals to the smart thermostats and appliances about how much it currently costs the utility to provide it electricity. Then, based on the preferences entered by the consumer, the smart systems in a home send signals back to the utility about how much power they will use. If costs are high, for example, the thermostat might signal that it will turn up the temperature to reduce the power consumption of the air conditioner.